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The States: New Orleans

The second leg of our trip was to New Orleans (pronounced New Orlins by the locals). We left Vegas at the very unrespectable time of 4am and had to fly to Atlanta first which was a bit of a drag.

First glimpse of the famous Bourban Street

We were staying at an Air B’n’B two bedroom condo which was just outside the French quarter. Hilariously enough Matty and I broke our bed (by just sitting on it, I swear!) in the first 10 minutes that we were there. A peek under the bed discovered that the mattress was held up but 3 slats, 2 of which were being supported by paint cans. Ray, the man who owned the condo was very nice, he came and practically rebuilt the supports on both beds. No more paint cans!

We continued the tradition of first and second dinners with a taste of red beans and rice, and jumbalaya rice to start at an outdoor cafe with live jazz music. For dinner I had spicy buffalo wings which were amazingly delicious but also amazingly spicy. Both Mum and I lovingly suffered out way through the entire meal. Yum. Today was also the day I began finding animals to pat. Two cats was today’s achievement, haha.

Washboard solo!

Our second day, Thursday, started with a breakfast with live jazz music. I was starting to realise that most restaurants and bars had some sort of band playing almost constantly. We then took a ferry across the Mississippi River to Algiers for a morning drink in the pub. By the way we had at least one drink almost every day of our trip. By the end I needed to come home to take a break! We also visited the French market and ate the famous beignet donuts.

Thursday night was also the night that we found our favourite place to go on Bourban Street, Lucky Pierre’s. We all went out for dinner and then split up at Bourban Street to spent some time in the bars and listening to the live music. Matty and I were almost headed for home when we spotted the lovely Desiree in a Fiona costume from Adventure Time. If that didn’t lure us enough, their special was 3 for 1 drinks. Lucky Pierre’s turned out to be a burlesque/gay bar where we met 3 very lovely people whom we are now all Facebook friends with. This was also the night that we discovered that people will trow mardi gras beads off the balconies for people walking along the street to catch.

Lucky Pierre’s Bar

Friday we took a steamboat ride on ‘The Natchez’ along the Mississippi. We also visited a cemetery, and had dinner in a bar with yet another live jazz band, well 2 actually, at Frenchman Street. Friday was our quiet night.

The Natchez

The voodoo queen’s grave, apparently

Saturday we took an airboat tour around the swamp lands. This tour was great! Our guide scared us all with a baby alligator that he pulled from an esky on the boat. I was of course the first brave person to hold it when the 2 large black men sitting next to us flatly refused. Oh yes, and one of those men had a hunting knife strapped to his belt too! The guide also decided that enticing alligators towards the boat with chicken wasn’t enough and that he really needed to pull a large one from the water and drop it on the deck of the boat to scare us all some more.

Saturday night we spent some more time at Lucky Pierre’s with our friends Desiree, Amber and Al. We also had some quiet drinks on the balcony with Al after he finished his shift.

Our final day we didn’t get up to much, except breakfast, because we had to leave around lunch to fly to LA.

This made me giggle each time I passed it on the way to our room. There was also a bike with a plastic skull hanging from the handlebars.

At other points in the trip I also made friends with several dogs, patted an police horse and saw a squirrel. Highlights for me of course.